One thing that has made Swedes proud in the last few years is the "Millennium Trilogy" series of books written by Stieg Larsson. The series includes (in order of release) "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl Who Played with Fire", and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest". The books have sold close to 30 million copies world-wide. If you look at Amazon's Top Sellers List this week you will see that three of the top ten sellers are books from the trilogy. In fact, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" is in the number two position and it will not even be released for a month!

Forget Stephanie Meyers, Stieg Larsson rocks! His story is one of those tragic twists of fate related to success. Stieg Larsson the author, died of heart problems at 50 years old in 2004. Ironically, he never lived to see what a publishing phenomenon the books would become because the first novel was published two years after his premature passing.

I read hundreds of books each year. I am fond of crime thrillers, especially ones with a social conscience. Some of my favorite authors are Harlan Coben, Craig Russell, Ken Bruen, David Lindsey, and Mark Billingham. I can say without hesitation that the three books in this trilogy were the best fiction books I have read in about 10 years.

These books have it all. Much has been written about these books so I will resist going into specifics. I just suggest that you, "Do not pass go – Do not collect $200" until you buy the first book now. You will be hooked and you may even have your faith (if need be) in reading restored.

All three books have been made into movies in Europe starring Swedish television and movie actors. The first of the three movies is now in limited released in the USA. I have seen the all the movies. The filmmakers got it right with the casting of Noomi Rapace as the enigmatic and complicated character of Lisbeth Salander. The rest of the cast don't look anything like I had imagined them in my mind's eye. Check out the movie posters:

The first of the movies I have seen in the trilogy was "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", directed by Danish director, Niels Arden Oplev. This is the best of the three movies, in my opinion. This film more closely followed the plot of the book. I have read that "The Girl Who Played with Fire" was originally a three hour movie made for Swedish television. That might explain how disappointing the second film was. The version I saw looked poorly edited and it felt like they cut out some very good bits from the original. It just didn't flow very well at all. The actor who played Ronald "The Monster" Niederman didn't look at all what I thought he should. One of the seminal scenes in the book, his fight with Paolo was very weak and poorly choreographed.

The biggest letdown was the last movie "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest". They left out what I thought were essential parts of the last book. Erika Berger is never seen working for the large Swedish daily newspaper that leads to a very interesting subplot. Very little attention was paid to character development which leads to a confusing mish mash of events that are very ill-defined.

Mikael does not have a relationship with the Swedish government officer, Monica Figuerola that is quite central in my view to the plot. They introduced events that were not even in the book. Lastly, the build up and subsequent very tense courtroom drama played out like a weak Swedish episode of "Law and Order". It seemed like the producers believed they had a huge sweeping story line to deal with and just couldn't decide how to use the time. Sadly, this one was a bummer.

I guess we have come to appreciate that filmmakers are limited to what can and cannot be in the final script. It is very frustrating for real fans of the novels. Great books rarely translate to great movies. My list of great movies made from great books are: "Jaws", "The Exorcist", "The Godfather", and "Silence of the Lambs". Oh well...maybe filmmakers will get "Game of Thrones" and "Incarceron" right.

Lisbeth Salander (as seen to the right played by Noomi Rapace) is one of the truly interesting heroines of contemporary fiction. As Marjorie Miller described her in the L.A. Times, "Salander is as sympathetic as she is odd, an interesting mix of vulnerability and power". Salander was abused as a child and made a ward of the state.

Salander is described as being less than five feet tall, weighs under a 100 pounds and dresses in dark goth fashions. She has pierced ears, eyebrows, and nose rings. She is physically tough and is a mathematic savant. She is a top class researcher and world class hacker who goes by the screen name "Wasp". Of course she has a large tattoo of a dragon on her back.

As word of the Salander character spreads I suspect that she will find a spot in contemporary culture that will elevate her to icon status. Only time will tell. Just be sure to read the books and see the movies to judge for yourself.